


The Beast Within 20/?

by iantosgal (orphan_account)



Series: The Beast Within [20]
Category: Torchwood
Genre: Alternate Timelines, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-20
Updated: 2013-03-20
Packaged: 2017-12-05 22:57:04
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/728842
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/iantosgal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack is back from his time with the Doctor and his team are keeping something from him, but what? Set after KKBB.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Beast Within 20/?

When he woke up, he could hear the steady beating of a heart monitor. His fight or flight instincts tried to kick in, he had to get away, get Martha away from Copley. He tried to move but pain rippled through his chest and he groaned. 

“Easy, easy,” said a soft voice, a firm but comforting hand grabbing his shoulder. 

Ianto recognised Owen’s voice and relaxed minutely. 

“M...mm...” he mumbled. 

“Shhh, it’s alright mate, it’s ok,” Owen soothed. 

“Ma...r...tha...” Ianto forced out, still unable to open his eyes. 

He heard a sigh and started to panic. 

“She’s fine. We’re all fine, Yan.”

Ianto’s whole body relaxed at Owen’s words and he fell back into the black. 

***

When he woke again he felt decidedly better. He opened his eyes and looked around. He was alone in the autopsy area. A quick inventory of his body told him he was fairly unscathed, a bandage wrapped around his chest but it didn’t really hurt. 

He was confused. He remembered blinding pain, blood in his lungs, feeling like he was dying and yet now...now it felt like nothing more than a bruise. 

Experimentally, he pushed himself up. 

His chest was a dull ache but he’d had worse. He pulled the electrodes for the heart monitor free from his chest and it started to beep. He turned it off, a feeling of déjà vu from the Pharm shivering through his body. He pushed the sheets off of him and swung his legs over the edge. When he stood, he was a little shaky but he didn’t fall. He was still in the white scrubs trousers he’d found at the Pharm and only the bandage covered his chest. 

He made his way up the stairs on shaky legs into the main Hub area. Everyone was huddled around the sofa’s eating pizza. 

“Hope you saved me some,” he said and was a little surprised at the rasp in his voice. 

The effect of his words was instantaneous and slightly explosive. Gwen swore loudly, Tosh yelped, Jack spun round and dropped his pizza and Owen and Martha where on their feet and rushing over to him in seconds. 

“What the hell are you doing up here?” Owen demanded. 

“How the hell are you up here more importantly?!” Martha added. 

“I’m fine,” Ianto said. 

“Oh really? And what medical degree do you have that drew you to that prognosis?” Owen said sarcastically, grabbing Ianto’s arm and starting to lead him back to the autopsy area. 

“Owen...”

“Sit,” Owen said, shortly, pointing to the table.

Ianto sighed and pulled himself up, wincing slightly. Owen pushed him back so he was propped up by the pillows in a reclining position. Owen grabbed the discarded electrodes and began putting them back on Ianto’s chest, turning the monitor back on with an exasperated sigh and shot Ianto a look that said he would quite like to slap him upside the head. 

Martha was standing near the bottom of the steps, Jack half way down and Gwen and Tosh together, peering down at him, arms rested on the handrail of the balcony. Everyone was present and correct, if a little shaken. He turned to look at Martha and held out a hand. She took it and gripped his hand tightly. 

“You ok?” he asked. 

“Am I ok?” She scoffed. “I’m fine.” She looked down. “Ianto...I’m sorry.”

“Martha...”

“This was my fault. If I’d done what I was supposed to and got out once my part was done this never would have happened. I never should have been in that area. We both would have gotten out fine and you would never have gotten shot.”

“Yeah, well...” Ianto said, not really knowing how to make her feel better. She was right. If she had left when she was supposed to then maybe none of this would have happened. “It’s ok,” he said eventually. “It could have been worse.”

She smiled sadly at him and gripped his hand tighter. 

“Did we shut it down ok?” he asked. 

“Yep,” Tosh answered. “We destroyed everything. All their files and research, their equipment, their labs...”

“Their prisoners,” Jack interjected, causing a moment of sad silence. 

“We wiped everyone’s minds as well,” Gwen said. “No one remembers reset or aliens or any of it.”

“Well, apart from that one doctor that got away,” Martha said, bitterly. 

“Which doctor?” Ianto asked, dread building in his stomach. 

“The one that booked me in. Older woman, dark skin. The one that shot you with the tranquilizer first,” Martha explained. 

“Fuck,” Ianto said, letting his head fall back with a muffled thump. “Plummer.”

“We’re looking for her,” Gwen said. 

“There’s not much she can do now anyway,” Jack said. “We destroyed everything.”

“It’s worse than all that,” Ianto said, he looked up, right into Jack’s eye. “She took my blood.”

***

“So what exactly did Copley say?” Jack asked after Ianto had told them everything. 

Ianto growled a little in exasperation, tired of explaining this over and over again. 

“He said that my body changes on a cellular level when I transform and the cells repair themselves at a much faster rate, that’s how I survive. He thought that if he could combine my blood with the mayfly he could make reset work. He had Plummer take some of my blood and run in case I wouldn’t cooperate. So, now she’s God knows where with my blood doing God knows what.” He laughed a little manically. “Bloody hell, Copley probably sacrificed himself so she could get away, so that she could continue his work.”

“It’s gonna be ok. We’ll find her,” Owen said. 

“Oh what, like we’ve find the other wolf? Or how we’ve worked out what the hell is going on with that signal from Beth?” Ianto demanded, his breathing becoming heavier in his anger. He saw Martha inching a way slightly. “It’s one thing after a-fucking-nother and we are no closer to figuring any of this out!” Ianto shouted, slamming his fist down onto the side table, making Owen’s tools bounce. 

“Hey! I said, we will figure it out,” Owen said, gripping Ianto’s arm in warning. He turned to face the others. “Give us a minute, yeah?”

The others filed out, Martha tugging Jack with her on her way past. 

“I know it’s frustrating,” Owen said, once they were alone. “But you can’t let your anger get the better of you.”

“I know,” Ianto said, taking a deep breath. 

Owen was silent for a moment and then turned away from Ianto.

“That’s the second time you’ve saved my life.”

“Owen...”

“The second time I thought you were gonna die on me.” He turned back and Ianto felt abashed at the guilt and worry in his friend’s eyes. “Promise me you won’t do that again.”

Ianto shook his head in response. 

“Promise me.”

“I can’t,” Ianto snapped. “If I can save you or any of the others, I will. I will always put myself on the line.”

“Why?”

“Because... like Copley said, my cells reconstruct faster. I heal faster. What if, I can’t die anymore? What if I’m becoming like Jack? You guys...if you get shot in the chest you won’t be coming back.”

“And you knew all that for sure when you took the bullet, yeah?” Owen asked, his voice dripping in sarcasm. 

“No. Not for sure. But...”

Owen shook his head and turned away again. 

“We don’t know anything. It’s all guess work.”

“All I know is three hours ago I was drowning in my own blood and now I feel fine.”

“And what if next time you don’t come back? What if next time it’s a head shot? Or a bullet straight through the heart? Will you come back from that?”

“I don’t...”

“No! You don’t know, Ianto! That’s the point. How do you think I’d feel if you took a bullet for me and didn’t wake up? How do you think I feel knowing that all of this is my fault!?” Owen shouted. 

“Owen...”

“You have no idea, Yan. Seeing you cope with all this and knowing it should have been me...I just...I can’t...”

Ianto pushed himself up and pulled Owen to him, hugging him close. 

“I’m sorry,” he whispered.

“You don’t have to be sorry, Yan.” Owen said, clapping Ianto on the back before pulling away. “I can’t exactly ask you to apologise for saving my life, can I!? I just...I need you to stop doing this. I need you to stop sacrificing yourself. At least until we know for sure whether Copley was spouting shit or not.”

“But why would he lie?”

“Don’t be naive, Yan, it don’t suit you,” Owen said, with a smile. “Copley was clearly a mad scientist and, to put it bluntly, you’re a mad scientist wet dream.”

“I’m a lot of people’s wet dream,” Ianto replied with a wink. 

Owen laughed and pushed him back. 

“All right, Casanova, let’s take some more samples and I’ll run some more tests, ok? Until then, you’re on desk duty.”

“What? Owen!” 

“No. Anyone else would be laid up for weeks and then on desk duty for a month. I’m asking for one week, ok? Just...let me make sure you’re alright.”

Ianto sighed but nodded. 

***

God he was bored. Bored out of his mind. 

He’d only been confined to the Hub for two days but it already felt like an eternity. Martha was still hanging around; her and Owen were running test after test and pouring over the results looking to come to some sort of conclusion on the validity of Copley’s claim. Tosh was going over the recordings of Ianto’s reaction to Beth’s signal, analysing the sound waves and their effects and Jack and Gwen were out Weevil hunting. 

And Ianto was doing nothing. He’d tidied the Hub, sorted out the Archives, fed Janet and Myfanwy, run on the treadmill for two hours and made everyone a coffee. He’d spent hours trying to work out who the other wolf could be. He’d watched and re-watched the CCTV of the attack in the park, looking for any clues. He’d gone through police reports, helpfully supplied by Andy, that could have links to animal attacks and months of missing person’s reports to find any link he could, but he just kept coming to dead end after dead end. 

So now, he was swinging back and forth on his chair, hands clasped behind his head, staring into space. 

“That’s very distracting you know,” Tosh said. She didn’t look up from where she was looking over the results from Owen’s tests with the signal, but Ianto could see the corners of her lip quirk up in a smile. 

“So...you and Owen...what’s going on there?” Ianto asked, ignoring her comment. 

She did look at him now, her cheeks red. 

“Tosh, I do believe you’re blushing,” he said, rolling his chair over to her. 

Tosh took her glasses of and smiled. 

“Well, I don’t know. I mean, we’ve been out for a few drinks and I think there’s something there but he hasn’t...made a move, as it were.”

“Wow, that’s a little bit too much information, Tosh,” Ianto laughed. 

“No, no, not like that. I mean, we haven’t kissed. I don’t think he sees me that way. Maybe I’m just kidding myself.”

“Don’t be stupid, Tosh. You’re gorgeous. He’d have to be mad not to see that.”

“Ianto, I think you want this more than Owen does,” Tosh said a little sadly and turned back to her file. 

Ianto frowned a little at that. He knew that wasn’t true. Owen was the king of flirts but Ianto had seen something change in the way Owen looked at Tosh. Before they went into that thing with the alien whale, there had definitely been something there and on their last night out, Owen had got spectacularly drunk, ignored all the girls that approached him and asked Ianto loads of questions about dating a co-worked. There was no way he was wrong about this. 

He pushed his chair away and got to his feet, making his way to the autopsy area. 

If he couldn’t get any work done, the least he could do was play cupid.


End file.
